Chaplin acted in, directed, scripted, produced and eventually
scored his own films as one of the most creative and influential
personalities of the silent-film era. Chaplin himself was heavily
influenced by a predecessor, the French silent movie comedian Max Linder, to whom he
dedicated one of his films. His working life in entertainment
spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the Music
Hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer almost until
his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private
life encompassed both adulation and controversy. With Mary Pickford, Douglas
Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, Chaplin co-founded United Artists in
1919.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked
Chaplin the 10th greatest
male actor of all time. In 2008, Martin Sieff in a review of
the book Chaplin: A Life, writes: "Chaplin was not just
'big', he was gigantic. In 1915, he burst onto a war-torn world
bringing it the gift of comedy, laughter and relief while it was
tearing itself apart through WWI. Over the next 25 years, through the Great
Depression and the rise of Hitler, he stayed on the job. It is
doubtful any individual has ever given more entertainment, pleasure
and relief to so many human beings when they needed it the
most".[2]George
Bernard Shaw, having in mind the peerless quality of Chaplin's
work and that he performed virtually every role in creating his
films – actor, director, producer, scriptwriter, musical scores
etc., called Chaplin "the only genius to come out of the movie
industry".

Biography

Early
life

Chaplin c. 1910s

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889, in East
Street, Walworth, London, England. His parents were both entertainers in
the music hall
tradition; his father, Charles Spencer Chaplin Sr, was a vocalist
and an actor and his mother, Hannah Chaplin, a singer and an actress.
They separated before Charlie was three. He learned singing from
his parents. The 1891 census
shows that his mother lived with Charlie and his older half-brother
Sydney on
Barlow Street, Walworth.

As a small child, Chaplin also lived with his mother in various
addresses in and around Kennington Road in Lambeth, including 3 Pownall Terrace, Chester
Street and 39 Methley Street. His mother and maternal grandmother
were from the Smith family of Romanichals,[3] a fact
of which he was extremely proud,[4] though
he described it in his autobiography as "the skeleton in our family
cupboard".[5]
Chaplin's father, Charles Chaplin Sr., was an alcoholic and had little
contact with his son, though Chaplin and his half-brother briefly
lived with their father and his mistress, Louise, at 287 Kennington
Road where a plaque now commemorates the fact. The half-brothers
lived there while their mentally ill mother resided at Cane Hill Asylum at Coulsdon. Chaplin's father's
mistress sent the boy to Archbishop Temples Boys School. His father
died of cirrhosis of the
liver when Charlie was twelve in 1901.[6] As of
the 1901 Census, Charles resided at 94 Ferndale Road, Lambeth, with The Eight Lancashire Lads,
led by John William Jackson (the 17 year old son of one of the
founders).

A larynx condition ended
the singing career of Chaplin's mother. Hannah's first crisis came
in 1894 when she was performing at The Canteen, a theatre
in Aldershot. The
theatre was mainly frequented by rioters and soldiers. Hannah was
badly injured by the objects the audience threw at her and she was
booed off the stage. Backstage, she cried and argued with her
manager. Meanwhile, the five-year old Chaplin went on stage alone
and sang a well-known tune at that time, "Jack Jones".

After Chaplin's mother (who went by the stage name Lilly Harley)
was again admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum, her son was left in the
workhouse at Lambeth in
south London, moving after several weeks to the Central London
District School for paupers in Hanwell. The young Chaplin brothers forged a
close relationship in order to survive. They gravitated to the
Music Hall while still very young, and both of them proved to have
considerable natural stage talent. Chaplin's early years of
desperate poverty were a great influence on his characters. Themes
in his films in later years would re-visit the scenes of his
childhood deprivation in Lambeth.

Chaplin's mother died in 1928 in Hollywood, seven years after
having been brought to the U.S. by her sons. Unknown to Charlie and
Sydney until years later, they had a half-brother through their
mother. The boy, Wheeler Dryden {1892-1957}, was raised
abroad by his father but later connected with the rest of the
family and went to work for Chaplin at his Hollywood studio. Dryden
was the father of Spencer Dryden {1938-2005}

America

Chaplin first toured America with the Fred Karno troupe from 1910 to 1912. Karno
is his fraternal brother in the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows (I.O.O.F). After five months back in England, he
returned to the U.S. for a second tour, arriving with the Karno
Troupe on 2 October 1912. In the Karno Company was Arthur Stanley
Jefferson, who would later become known as Stan Laurel. Chaplin and Laurel shared a
room in a boarding house. Stan Laurel returned to England but
Chaplin remained in the United States. In late 1913, Chaplin's act
with the Karno Troupe was seen by Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, Minta Durfee, and Fatty Arbuckle. Sennett hired him for his
studio, the Keystone Film Company as a replacement
for Ford
Sterling.[7]
Unfortunately, Chaplin had considerable initial difficulty
adjusting to the demands of film acting and his performance
suffered for it. After Chaplin's first film appearance, Making a
Living was filmed, Sennett felt he had made a costly
mistake.[8] Most
agree it was Normand who persuaded him to give Chaplin another
chance.[9]

Chaplin was given over to Normand, who directed and wrote a
handful of his earliest films.[10]
Chaplin did not enjoy being directed by a woman, and the two often
disagreed.[10]
Eventually, the two worked out their differences and remained
friends long after Chaplin left Keystone. The Tramp debuted during
the silent film era in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice
(released on February 7, 1914). Chaplin, with his Little Tramp
character, quickly became the most popular star in Keystone
director Mack Sennett's company of players. Chaplin continued to
play the Tramp through dozens of short films and, later,
feature-length productions (in only a handful of other productions
did he play characters other than the Tramp).

The Tramp was closely identified with the silent era, and was
considered an international character; when the sound era began in
the late 1920s, Chaplin refused to make a talkie featuring the
character. The 1931 production City Lights featured no dialogue.
Chaplin officially retired the character in the film Modern Times
(released February 5, 1936), which appropriately ended with the
Tramp walking down an endless highway toward the horizon. The film
was only a partial talkie and is often called the last silent film.
The Tramp remains silent until near the end of the film when, for
the first time, his voice is finally heard, albeit only as part of
a French/Italian-derived gibberish song. This allowed the Tramp to
finally be given a voice but not tarnish his association with the
silent era.

Two films Chaplin made in 1915, The Tramp and The Bank, created
the characteristics of his screen persona. While in the end the
Tramp manages to shake off his disappointment and resume his
carefree ways, “the pathos lies in The Tramp's hope for a more
permanent transformation through love, and his failure to achieve
this.” (Article 21, pg 112)

Mack Sennett did not warm to Chaplin right away, and Chaplin
believed Sennett intended to fire him following a disagreement with
Normand.[10]
However, Chaplin's pictures were soon a success, and he became one
of the biggest stars at Keystone.[10][11]

Pioneering film
artist and global celebrity

Chaplin's earliest films were made for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, where he developed
his tramp character and very quickly learned the art and craft of
film making. The public first saw the tramp when Chaplin, age 24,
appeared in his second film to be released (7 February 1914),
Kid Auto Races at
Venice.

However, he had devised the tramp costume for a film produced a
few days earlier but released later (9 February 1914),
Mabel's Strange
Predicament. Mack Sennett had requested that Chaplin "get
into a comedy make-up".[12]
As Chaplin recalled in his autobiography:[13]

"I had no idea what makeup to put on. I did not like my get-up
as the press reporter [in Making a Living]. However on the
way to the wardrobe I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big
shoes, a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything to be a
contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and
the shoes large. I was undecided whether to look old or young, but
remembering Sennett had expected me to be a much older man, I added
a small moustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding
my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was
dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was.
I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully
born."

"Fatty"
Arbuckle contributed his father-in-law's derby and his own pants (of generous
proportions). Chester Conklin provided the little cutaway tailcoat, and Ford Sterling the
size-14 shoes, which were so big, Chaplin had to wear each on the
wrong foot to keep them on. He devised the moustache from a bit of
crepe hair belonging to Mack Swain. The only thing Chaplin himself
owned was the whangee
cane.[12]
Chaplin's tramp character would immediately gain enormous
popularity among cinema audiences.

Chaplin's early Keystones use the standard Mack Sennett
formula of extreme physical comedy and exaggerated
gestures. Chaplin's pantomime was subtler, more suitable to
romantic and domestic farces than to the usual Keystone chases and
mob scenes. The visual gags were pure Keystone, however; the tramp
character would aggressively assault his enemies with kicks and
bricks. Moviegoers loved this cheerfully earthy new comedian, even
though critics warned that his antics bordered on vulgarity.
Chaplin was soon entrusted with directing and editing his own
films. He made 34 shorts for Sennett during his first year in
pictures, as well as the landmark comedy feature Tillie's Punctured
Romance.

Chaplin in character in the 1910s

Chaplin's principal character was "The Tramp" (known as "Charlot" in France, and
the French-speaking world, Italy, Spain,
Andorra, Portugal, Greece, Romania and Turkey, "Carlitos" in Brazil and Argentina, and "Vagabund" in Germany). "The
Tramp" is a vagrant with the refined manners,
clothes, and dignity of a gentleman. The character wears a tight coat,
oversized trousers and shoes, and a derby; carries a bamboo cane; and has a signature toothbrush moustache. The Tramp
character was featured in the first movie trailer to be exhibited
in a U.S. movie theater, a slide promotion developed by Nils Granlund,
advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theater chain, and shown at the
Loew's Seventh Avenue Theatre in Harlem in 1914.[14] In
1915, Chaplin signed a much more favorable contract with Essanay
Studios, and further developed his cinematic skills, adding new
levels of depth and pathos to the Keystone-style slapstick. Most of
the Essanay films were more ambitious, running twice as long as the
average Keystone comedy. Chaplin also developed his own stock
company, including ingénueEdna Purviance
and comic villains Leo
White and Bud Jamison.

As immigrant groups arrived in waves to America silent movies
were able to cross all the barriers of language, and spoke to every
level of the American Tower of Babel, precisely because they
were silent. Chaplin was emerging as the supreme exponent of silent
movies, an emigrant himself from London. Chaplin's Tramp enacted
the difficulties and humiliations of the immigrant underdog, the constant struggle
at the bottom of the American heap and yet he triumphed over
adversity without ever rising to the top, and thereby stayed in
touch with his audience. Chaplin's films were also deliciously
subversive. The bumbling officials enabled the immigrants to laugh
at those they feared. [15]

In 1916, the Mutual Film
Corporation paid Chaplin US$670,000 to produce a dozen two-reel
comedies. He was given near complete artistic control, and produced
twelve films over an eighteen-month period that rank among the most
influential comedy films in cinema. Practically every Mutual comedy
is a classic: Easy Street, One AM, The
Pawnshop, and The Adventurer are perhaps the best
known. Edna Purviance remained the leading lady, and Chaplin added
Eric
Campbell, Henry Bergman, and Albert Austin to his stock
company; Campbell, a Gilbert and Sullivan veteran,
provided superb villainy, and second bananas Bergman and Austin
would remain with Chaplin for decades. Chaplin regarded the Mutual
period as the happiest of his career, although he also had concerns
that the films during that time were becoming formulaic owing to
the stringent production schedule his contract required. Upon the
U.S. entering World War I, Chaplin became a spokesman for Liberty
Bonds with his close friend Douglas Fairbanks and Mary
Pickford.[11]

Most of the Chaplin films in circulation date from his Keystone,
Essanay, and Mutual periods. After Chaplin assumed control of his
productions in 1918 (and kept exhibitors and audiences waiting for
them), entrepreneurs serviced the demand for Chaplin by bringing
back his older comedies. The films were recut, retitled, and
reissued again and again, first for theatres, then for the
home-movie market, and in recent years, for home video. Even
Essanay was guilty of this practice, fashioning "new" Chaplin
comedies from old film clips and out-takes. The twelve Mutual
comedies were revamped as sound movies in 1933, when producer
Amadee J. Van Beuren added new orchestral scores and sound effects. A listing of the dozens of
Chaplin films and alternate versions can be found in the Ted Okuda-David Maska book
Charlie Chaplin at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the
Tramp. Efforts to produce definitive versions of Chaplin's
pre-1918 short films have been underway in recent years; all twelve
Mutual films were restored in 1975 by archivist David Shepard and
Blackhawk
Films, and new restorations with even more footage were
released on DVD in 2006.

Creative
control

At the conclusion of the Mutual contract in 1917, Chaplin signed
a contract with First National to produce eight two-reel
films. First National financed and distributed these pictures
(1918-23) but otherwise gave him complete creative control over
production which he could perform at a more relaxed pace that
allowed him to focus on quality. Chaplin built his own Hollywood
studio and using his independence, created a remarkable, timeless
body of work that remains entertaining and influential. Although
First National expected Chaplin to deliver short comedies like the
celebrated Mutuals, Chaplin ambitiously expanded most of his
personal projects into longer, feature-length films, including
Shoulder
Arms (1918), The Pilgrim (1923) and the
feature-length classic The Kid (1921).

In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the United Artists film distribution company
with Mary
Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith, all of whom were seeking to
escape the growing power consolidation of film distributors and
financiers in the developing Hollywood studio system. This move,
along with complete control of his film production through his
studio, assured Chaplin's independence as a film-maker. He served
on the board of UA until the early 1950s.

All Chaplin's United Artists pictures were of feature length,
beginning with the atypical drama in which Chaplin had only a brief
cameo role, A Woman of Paris (1923). This was
followed by the classic comedies The Gold Rush (1925) and The
Circus (1928).

After the arrival of sound films, Chaplin made The
Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), as well as Modern
Times (1936) before he committed to sound. These were
essentially silent films scored with his own music and sound
effects. City Lights contained arguably his most perfect
balance of comedy and sentimentality. Of the final scene, critic James Agee wrote in
Life magazine in 1949 that it was the "greatest single
piece of acting ever committed to celluloid".

World premiere of Modern Times (1936), New York

While Modern Times (1936) is a non-talkie, it does
contain talk—usually coming from inanimate objects such as a radio
or a TV monitor. This was done to help 1930s audiences, who were
out of the habit of watching silent films, adjust to not hearing
dialogue. Modern Times was the first film where Chaplin's
voice is heard (in the nonsense song at the end, being
both written and performed by Chaplin). However, for most viewers
it is still considered a silent film—and the end of an era.

Although "talkies" became the dominant mode of movie
making soon after they were introduced in 1927, Chaplin resisted
making such a film all through the 1930s. He considered cinema
essentially a pantomimic art. He said: "Action is more generally
understood than words. Like Chinese symbolism, it will mean
different things according to its scenic connotation. Listen to a
description of some unfamiliar object — an African warthog, for
example; then look at a picture of the animal and see how surprised
you are". Time Magazine, 9 February
1931

It is a tribute to Chaplin's versatility that he also has one
film credit for choreography for the 1952 film
Limelight, and another as a singer for the title music of
The Circus (1928). The best known of several songs he
composed are "Smile", composed for the
film Modern Times (1936) and given
lyrics to help promote a 1950s revival of the film, famously
covered by Nat King
Cole. "This Is My Song" from Chaplin's last film, "A Countess
From Hong Kong," was a number one hit in several different
languages in the 1960s (most notably the version by Petula Clark and
discovery of an unreleased version in the 1990s recorded in 1967 by
Judith Durham of
The Seekers), and
Chaplin's theme from Limelight was a hit in the 1950s
under the title "Eternally." Chaplin's score to Limelight
won an Academy
Award in 1972; a delay in the film premiering in Los Angeles
made it eligible decades after it was filmed. Chaplin also wrote
scores for his earlier silent films when they were re-released in
the sound era, notably The Kid for its 1971
re-release.

The Great
Dictator

Chaplin's first dialogue picture, The Great
Dictator (1940), was an act of defiance against German
dictator Adolf
Hitler and Nazism, filmed
and released in the United States one year before the U.S.
abandoned its policy of neutrality to enter
World War II. Chaplin played the role of "Adenoid Hynkel",[16]
Dictator of Tomania, clearly modeled on Hitler. The film also
showcased comedian Jack
Oakie as "Benzino Napaloni", dictator of Bacteria. The Napaloni
character was clearly a jab at Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini and Fascism.

Paulette
Goddard filmed with Chaplin again, depicting a woman in the
ghetto. The film was seen as an act of courage in the political
environment of the time, both for its ridicule of Nazism and for
the portrayal of overt Jewish characters and the depiction of their
persecution. Chaplin played both the role of Adenoid Hynkel and
also that of a look-alike Jewish barber persecuted by the Nazis,
who physically resembled the Tramp character. At the conclusion,
the two characters Chaplin portrayed swapped positions through a
complex plot, and he dropped out of his comic character to address
the audience directly in a speech.

Politics

Chaplin together with the American socialist Max Eastman in Hollywood 1919

Chaplin's political sympathies always lay with the left. His
politics seem moderate by some contemporary standards, but in the
1940s his views (in conjunction with his influence, fame, and
status in the United States as a resident foreigner) were labeled
as communistic. His silent films made prior to
the Great
Depression typically did not contain overt political themes or
messages, apart from the Tramp's plight in poverty and his run-ins with the law, but his
1930s films were more openly political. Modern Times depicts workers and poor
people in dismal conditions. The final dramatic speech in The
Great Dictator, which was critical of following patriotic
nationalism without question, and his vocal public support for the
opening of a second European front in 1942 to assist the Soviet Union in World War II were
controversial. In at least one of those speeches, according to a
contemporary account in the Daily Worker, he intimated
that Communism might sweep the world after World War II and equated it with human
progress.

Apart from the controversial 1942 speeches, Chaplin declined to
support the war effort as he had done for the First World War which led to public anger,
although his two sons saw service in the Army in Europe. For most
of World War II he was fighting serious criminal and civil charges
related to his involvement with actress Joan Barry (see below).
After the war, the critical view towards capitalism in his 1947 black comedy, Monsieur
Verdoux led to increased hostility, with the film being
the subject of protests in many U.S. cities. As a result, Chaplin's
final American film, Limelight, was less political and
more autobiographical in nature. His following European-made film,
A King
in New York (1957), satirized the political persecution
and paranoia that had forced him to leave the U.S. five years
earlier. After this film, Chaplin lost interest in making overt
political statements, later saying that comedians and clowns should
be "above politics".

McCarthy
era

Although Chaplin had his major successes in the United States
and was a resident from 1914 to 1953, he always maintained a
neutral nationalistic stance. During the era of McCarthyism, Chaplin
was accused of "un-American
activities" as a suspected communist and J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the
FBI to keep
extensive secret files on him, tried to end his United States
residency. FBI pressure on Chaplin grew after his 1942 campaign for
a second European front in the war and reached a critical level in
the late 1940s, when Congressional figures threatened to call him
as a witness in hearings. This was never done, probably from fear
of Chaplin's ability to lampoon the investigators.[17]

In 1952, Chaplin left the US for what was intended as a brief
trip home to the United Kingdom for the London premiere of
Limelight. Hoover learned of the trip and negotiated with
the Immigration and
Naturalization Service to revoke Chaplin's re-entry permit,
exiling Chaplin so he could not return for his alleged political
leanings. Chaplin decided not to re-enter the United States,
writing; ".....Since the end of the last world war, I have been the
object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups
who, by their influence and by the aid of America's yellow
press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which
liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under
these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my
motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in
the United States."[18]

Chaplin then made his home in Vevey, Switzerland. He briefly and triumphantly
returned to the United States in April 1972, with his wife, to
receive an Honorary Oscar, and also to
discuss how his films would be re-released and marketed.

Final
works

Chaplin's final two films were made in London: A King in New
York (1957) in which he starred, wrote, directed and
produced; and A Countess from Hong
Kong (1967), which he directed, produced, and wrote. The
latter film stars Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando, and Chaplin made his final
on-screen appearance in a brief cameo role as a seasick steward. He
also composed the music for both films with the theme song from
A Countess From Hong Kong, "This is My Song,"
reaching number one in the UK as sung by Petula Clark. Chaplin also compiled a film
The
Chaplin Revue from three First National films A Dog's Life
(1918), Shoulder
Arms (1918) and The Pilgrim (1923) for which he
composed the music and recorded an introductory narration. As well
as directing these final films, Chaplin also wrote My
Autobiography, between 1959 and 1963, which was published in
1964.

In his pictorial autobiography My Life In Pictures,
published in 1974, Chaplin indicated that he had written a
screenplay for his daughter, Victoria; entitled The Freak, the film
would have cast her as an angel. According to Chaplin, a script was
completed and pre-production rehearsals had begun on the film (the
book includes a photograph of Victoria in costume), but were halted
when Victoria married. "I mean to make it some day," Chaplin wrote.
However, his health declined steadily in the 1970s which hampered
all hopes of the film ever being produced.

From 1969 until 1976, Chaplin wrote original music compositions
and scores for his silent pictures and re-released them. He
composed the scores of all his First National shorts: The Idle
Class in 1971 (paired with The Kid for re-release in
1972), A
Day's Pleasure in 1973, Pay Day in 1972, Sunnyside in 1974, and of his feature
length films firstly The Circus in 1969 and The
Kid in 1971. Chaplin worked with music associate Eric
James whilst composing all his scores.

Chaplin's last completed work was the score for his 1923 film
A Woman of
Paris, which was completed in 1976, by which time Chaplin
was extremely frail, even finding communication difficult.

Death

Chaplin's robust health began to slowly fail in the late 1960s,
after the completion of his final film A Countess from Hong
Kong, and more rapidly after he received his Academy Award
in 1972. By 1977, he had difficulty communicating, and was using a
wheelchair. Chaplin died in his sleep in Vevey, Switzerland on Christmas Day 1977.[19]

Chaplin was interred in
Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery, Vaud, Switzerland. On 1 March 1978, his corpse was
stolen by a small group of Swiss mechanics in an attempt to extort
money from his family.[20] The
plot failed, the robbers were captured, and the corpse was
recovered eleven weeks later near Lake Geneva. His body was reburied under
6 feet (1.8 m) of concrete to prevent further
attempts.

Filmmaking
techniques

Chaplin never spoke more than cursorily about his filmmaking
methods, claiming such a thing would be tantamount to a magician
spoiling his own illusion. In fact, until he began making spoken
dialogue films with The Great Dictator in 1940,
Chaplin never shot from a completed script. The method he
developed, once his Essanay contract gave him the freedom to write
for and direct himself, was to start from a vague premise — for
example "Charlie enters a health spa" or "Charlie works in a pawn
shop." Chaplin then had sets constructed and worked with his stock
company to improvise gags and "business" around them, almost always
working the ideas out on film. As ideas were accepted and
discarded, a narrative structure would emerge, frequently requiring
Chaplin to reshoot an already-completed scene that might have
otherwise contradicted the story.[21]
Chaplin's unique filmaking techniques became known only after his
death, when his rare surviving outakes and cut sequences were
carefully examined in the 1983 British documentary Unknown
Chaplin.

This is one reason why Chaplin took so much longer to complete
his films than did his rivals. In addition, Chaplin was an
incredibly exacting director, showing his actors exactly how he
wanted them to perform and shooting scores of takes until he had
the shot he wanted. (Animator Chuck Jones, who lived near Charlie
Chaplin's Lone Star studio as a boy, remembered his father saying
he watched Chaplin shoot a scene more than a hundred times until he
was satisfied with it.[22]) This
combination of story improvisation and relentless
perfectionism—which resulted in days of effort and thousands of
feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expense—often proved
very taxing for Chaplin, who in frustration would often lash out at
his actors and crew, keep them waiting idly for hours or, in
extreme cases, shutting down production altogether.[21]

Comparison with other
silent comics

Since the 1960s, Chaplin's films have been compared to those of
Buster Keaton
and Harold Lloyd
(the other two great silent film comedians of the time), especially
among the loyal fans of each comic.

The three had different styles: Chaplin had a strong affinity
for sentimentality and pathos (which was popular in the 1920s),
Lloyd was renowned for his everyman persona and 1920s optimism, and
Keaton adhered to onscreen stoicism with a cynical tone more suited
to modern audiences. On a historical level, Chaplin was behind the
pioneering generation of film comedians, and both the younger
Keaton and Harold Lloyd built upon his groundwork (in fact, Lloyd's
early characters "Willie Work" and "Lonesome Luke" were obvious
Chaplin ripoffs, something that Lloyd acknowledged and tried hard
to move away from—eventually succeeding). Chaplin's period of film
experimentation ended after the Mutual period (1916-1917), just
before Keaton entered films.

Commercially, Chaplin made some of the highest-grossing films in the silent era;
The Gold
Rush is the fifth with US$4.25 million and The Circus is the seventh with US$3.8
million. However, Chaplin's films combined made about US$10.5
million while Harold Lloyd's grossed US$15.7 million (Lloyd was far
more prolific, releasing twelve feature films in the 1920s while
Chaplin released just three). Buster Keaton's films were not nearly
as commercially successful as Chaplin's or Lloyd's even at the
height of his popularity, and only received belated critical
acclaim in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Beyond a healthy professional rivalry, former vaudevillians
Chaplin and Keaton thought highly of one another. Keaton stated in
his autobiography that Chaplin was the greatest comedian that ever
lived, and the greatest comedy director. Chaplin also greatly
admired Keaton: he welcomed him to United Artists in 1925, advised him
against his disastrous move to MGM in 1928, and for his last
American film, Limelight, wrote a part specifically for
Keaton as his first on-screen comedy partner since 1915.

Other
controversies

During World War
I, Chaplin was criticized in the British press for not joining
the Army. He had in fact presented himself for service, but was
denied for being too small at 5'5" and underweight. Chaplin raised
substantial funds for the war effort during war bond drives not only with public speaking
at rallies but also by making, at his own expense, The Bond, a comedic propaganda film
used in 1918. The lingering controversy may have prevented Chaplin
from receiving a knighthood in the 1930s. A 1916 propaganda short
film "Zepped" with Chaplin was discovered in 2009. [23]

For Chaplin's entire career, some level of controversy existed
over claims of Jewish ancestry. Nazi propaganda in the 1930s and
40s prominently portrayed him as Jewish (named Karl Tonstein)
relying on articles published in the U.S. press before,[24] and
FBI investigations of Chaplin in the late 1940s also focused on
Chaplin's ethnic origins. There is no documentary
evidence of Jewish ancestry for Chaplin himself. For
his entire public life, he fiercely refused to challenge or refute
claims that he was Jewish, saying that to do so would always "play
directly into the hands of anti-Semites."
Although baptised in the Church of
England, Chaplin was thought to be an agnostic for most of his
life.[25]

Chaplin's lifelong attraction to younger women remains
another enduring source of interest to some. His biographers have
attributed this to a teenage infatuation with Hetty Kelly, whom he
met in Britain while performing in the music hall, and which
possibly defined his feminine ideal. Chaplin clearly relished the
role of discovering and closely guiding young female stars; with
the exception of Mildred Harris, all of his marriages and most of
his major relationships began in this manner.

Personal
life

Relationships with women

Hetty Kelly was Chaplin's "true" first love, a
dancer with whom he "instantly" fell in love when she was fifteen
and almost married when he was nineteen, in 1908. It is said
Chaplin fell madly in love with her and asked her to marry him.
When she refused, Chaplin suggested it would be best if they did
not see each other again; he was reportedly crushed when she
agreed. Years later, her memory would remain an obsession with
Chaplin. He was devastated in 1921 when he learned that she had
died of influenza during
the 1918 flu
pandemic.

Edna
Purviance was Chaplin's first major leading lady after
Mabel Normand. Purviance and Chaplin were involved in a close
romantic relationship during the production of his Essanay and
Mutual films in 1916–1917. The romance seems to have ended by 1918,
and Chaplin's marriage to Mildred Harris in late 1918 ended any
possibility of reconciliation. Purviance would continue as leading
lady in Chaplin's films until 1923, and would remain on Chaplin's
payroll until her death in 1958. She and Chaplin spoke warmly of
one another for the rest of their lives.

Mildred
Harris: On 23 October 1918, Chaplin, age 29, married
the popular child actress, Harris, who was 16 at the time. They had
one son, Norman Spencer "The Little Mouse" Chaplin, born on 7 July
1919, who died three days later and is interred under the name
The Little Mouse at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood
California. Chaplin separated from Harris by late 1919, moving back
into the Los Angeles Athletic
Club.[26]
The couple divorced in November 1920, with Harris getting some of
their community property and a US$100,000 settlement.[26]
Chaplin admitted that he "was not in love, now that [he] was
married [he] wanted to be and wanted the marriage to be a success."
During the divorce, Chaplin claimed Harris had an affair with noted
actress of the time Alla Nazimova, rumored to be fond of
seducing young actresses.[27]

Pola
Negri: Chaplin was involved in a very public
relationship and engagement with the Polish actress, Negri, in
1922–23, after she arrived in Hollywood to star in films. The
stormy on-off engagement was halted after about nine months, but in
many ways it foreshadowed the modern stereotypes of Hollywood star
relationships. Chaplin's public involvement with Negri was unique
in his public life. By comparison he strove to keep his other
romances during this period very discreet and private (usually
without success). Many biographers have concluded the affair with
Negri was largely for publicity purposes.

Marion
Davies: In 1924, during the time he was involved with
the underage Lita Grey,
Chaplin was rumored to have had a fling with actress Davies,
companion of William Randolph Hearst. Davies
and Chaplin were both present on Hearst's yacht the weekend
preceding the mysterious death of Thomas Harper
Ince. Charlie allegedly tried to persuade Marion to leave
Hearst and remain with him, but she refused and stayed by Hearst's
side until his death in 1951. Chaplin made a rare cameo appearance
in Davies' 1928 film Show People, and by some accounts
supposedly continued an affair with her until 1931.

Lita
Grey: Chaplin first met Grey during the filming of
The Kid. Three years later, at age 35, he became involved
with the then 16-year-old Grey during preparations for The Gold
Rush in which she was to star as the female lead. They married
on 26 November 1924, after she became pregnant (a development that
resulted in her being removed from the cast of the film). They had
two sons, the actors Charles Chaplin, Jr. (1925–1968)
and Sydney Earle Chaplin (1926–2009). The
marriage was a disaster, with the couple hopelessly mismatched. The
couple divorced on 22 August 1927.[28] Their
extraordinarily bitter divorce had Chaplin paying Grey a
then-record-breaking US$825,000 settlement, on top of almost one
million dollars in legal costs. The stress of the sensational
divorce, compounded by a federal tax dispute, allegedly turned his
hair white. The Chaplin biographer Joyce Milton asserted in
Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin that the Grey-Chaplin
marriage was the inspiration for Vladimir Nabokov's 1950s novel
Lolita.

Merna
Kennedy: Lita Grey's friend, Kennedy was a dancer who
Chaplin hired as the lead actress in The Circus (1928). It is rumored that
the two had an affair during shooting. Grey used the rumored
infidelity in her divorce proceedings.

Georgia
Hale was Lita Grey's replacement on The Gold
Rush. In the documentary series, Unknown
Chaplin, (directed and written by film historians Kevin Brownlow
and David Gill), Hale,
in a 1980s interview states that she had idolized Chaplin since
childhood and that the then-19-year-old actress and Chaplin began
an affair that continued for several years, which she details in
her memoir, Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-Ups. During
production of Chaplin's film City Lights in 1929-30, Hale, who by
then was Chaplin's closest companion, was called in to replace Virginia
Cherrill as the flower girl. Seven minutes of test footage
survives from this recasting, and is included on the 2003 DVD
release of the film, but economics forced Chaplin to rehire
Cherrill. In discussing the situation in Unknown Chaplin,
Hale states that her relationship with Chaplin was as strong as
ever during filming. Their romance apparently ended sometime after
Chaplin's return from his world tour in 1933.

Louise
Brooks was a chorine in the Ziegfeld
Follies when she met Chaplin. He had gone to New York for
the opening there of The Gold Rush. For two months in the
summer of 1925, the two cavorted together at the Ritz, and with
film financier A.C. Blumenthal and Brooks' fellow Ziegfeld girlPeggy Fears in
Blumenthal's penthouse suite at the Ambassador Hotel. Brooks was
with Chaplin when he spent four hours watching a musician torture a
violin in a Lower East Side restaurant, an act he
would recreate in Limelight.

May Reeves was originally hired to be
Chaplin's secretary on his 1931-1932 extended trip to Europe,
dealing mostly with reading his personal correspondence. She worked
only one morning, and then was introduced to Chaplin, who was
instantly infatuated with her. May became his constant companion
and lover on the trip, much to the disgust of Chaplin's brother,
Syd. After Reeves also became involved with Syd, Chaplin ended the
relationship and she left his entourage. Reeves chronicled her
short time with Chaplin in her book, "The Intimate Charlie
Chaplin".

Paulette Goddard: Chaplin and
actress Goddard were involved in a romantic and professional
relationship between 1932 and 1940, with Goddard living with
Chaplin in his Beverly Hills home for most of this time. Chaplin
gave her starring roles in Modern Times and The Great
Dictator. Refusal to clarify their marital status is often
claimed to have eliminated Goddard from final consideration for the
role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.
After the relationship ended in 1940, Chaplin and Goddard made
public statements that they had been secretly married in 1936; but
these claims were likely a mutual effort to prevent any lasting
damage to Goddard's career. In any case, their relationship ended
amicably in 1942, with Goddard being granted a settlement. Goddard
went on to a major career in films at Paramount in the 1940s,
working several times with Cecil B. DeMille. Like Chaplin, she
lived her later life in Switzerland, dying in 1990.

Joan Barry
(1920-1996): In 1942, Chaplin had a brief affair with Barry, whom
he was considering for a starring role in a proposed film, but the
relationship ended when she began harassing him and displaying
signs of severe mental illness (not unlike his mother). Chaplin's
brief involvement with Barry proved to be a nightmare for him.
After having a child, she filed a paternity suit against him in
1943. Although blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father of
Barry's child, Barry's attorney, Joseph Scott, convinced the
court that the tests were inadmissible as evidence, and Chaplin was
ordered to support the child. The injustice of the ruling later led
to a change in California law to allow blood tests as evidence.
Federal prosecutors also brought Mann Act charges against Chaplin related to
Barry in 1944, of which he was acquitted.[29]
Chaplin's public image in America was gravely damaged by these
sensational trials.[17]
Barry was institutionalized in 1953 after she was found walking the
streets barefoot, carrying a pair of baby sandals and a child's
ring, and murmuring: "This is magic".[30]

Oona
O'Neill: During Chaplin's legal trouble over the Barry
affair, he met O'Neill, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, and married her on 16
June 1943. He was fifty-four; she had just turned eighteen. The
marriage produced eight children; their last child, Christopher,
was born when Chaplin was 73 years old. Oona survived Chaplin by
fourteen years, and died from pancreatic cancer in 1991.

Awards
and recognition

Academy
Awards

Chaplin received three Oscars in his
lifetime: one for Best Original
Score, one Honorary Award, and one Special Award. However, during
his active years as a filmmaker, Chaplin expressed disdain for the
Academy Awards; his son Charles Jr wrote that Chaplin invoked the
ire of the Academy in the 1930s by jokingly using his 1929 Oscar as
a doorstop. This may help explain why City Lights and Modern
Times, considered by several polls to be two of the
greatest of all motion pictures,[31][32] were
not nominated for a single Academy Award.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony: When the
first Oscars were awarded on 16 May 1929, the voting audit
procedures that now exist had not yet been put into place, and the
categories were still very fluid. Chaplin's The
Circus was set to be heavily recognized, as Chaplin had
originally been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best
Original Screenplay, and Best Comedy Directing. However, the
Academy decided to withdraw his name from all the competitive
categories and instead give him a Special Award "for versatility
and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The
Circus". The only other film to receive a Special Award that
year was The Jazz Singer.

The 44th Academy Awards ceremony: Chaplin's
second Oscar was awarded forty-three years after his first, in
1972. Chaplin came out of exile to accept the Honorary Award for
"the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the
art form of this century". Stepping onto the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,
Chaplin received the longest standing ovation in Academy Award
history, lasting a full five minutes.

The 45th Academy Awards ceremony: In 1973,
Chaplin's film Limelight was honored with an
Oscar for Best Original
Score. Though the film had originally been released in 1952,
due to Chaplin's political difficulties at the time, the film did
not play for one week in Los Angeles, and thus did not meet the
criterion for nomination until it was re-released in 1972.

Legacy

Chaplin's "tramp" character is possibly the most imitated on all
levels of entertainment. It is said that Chaplin once entered a
"Chaplin look-alike" competition and came in 3rd.

From 1917 to 1918, silent film actor Billy West made more
than 20 films as a comedian precisely imitating Chaplin's tramp
character, makeup and costume.[34]

The third of composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann's 1929-30
composition Wachsfigurenkabinett: Fünf kleine Opern (Waxworks:
Five Little Operas) is entitled 'Chaplin-Ford-Trot', and
features the character of Charlie Chaplin (in a speaking rather
than operatic role).

^"Chaplin Body Stolen From Swiss Grave.
Vehicle Apparently Used. British Envoy 'Appalled'.". New York
Times. 3 March 1978, Friday. "The body of Charlie Chaplin was
stolen last night or early today from the grave where it was buried
two months ago in a small cemetery in the Swiss village of
Corsier-surVevey, overlooking the eastern end of Lake
Geneva."

^"Mann & Woman". Time
(magazine). 3 April 1944. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,850389,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
"Auburn-haired Joan Barry, 24, who
wandered from her native Detroit to New York to Hollywood in
pursuit of a theatrical career, became a Chaplin protegee in the
summer of 1941. She fitted into a familiar pattern. Chaplin signed
her to a $75-a-week contract, began training her for a part in a
projected picture. Two weeks after the contract was signed she
became his mistress. Throughout the summer and autumn, Miss Barry
testified last week, she visited the ardent actor five or six times
a week. By midwinter her visits were down to "maybe three times a
week". By late summer of 1942, Chaplin had decided that she was
unsuited for his movie. Her contract ended."

Monsieur Verdoux (1947); but
Chaplin in this line is quoting a far older statement of Bishop Beilby Porteus: "One murder
makes a villain. Millions a hero."

I am for people. I can't help it.

As quoted in The Observer [London] (28 September,
1952)

I remain just one thing, and one thing only — and that
is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any
politician.

As quoted in The Observer (17 June 1960)

I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed,
the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began
to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully
born.

My Autobiography (1964)

All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty
girl.

My Autobiography (1964)

Friends have asked how I came to engender this American
antagonism. My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a
non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to
fall in line by hating them.
Secondly, I was opposed to the Committee on Un-American Activities
— a dishonest phrase to begin with, elastic enough to wrap around
the throat and strangle the voice of any American citizen whose
honest opinion is a minority of one.

My Autobiography (1964)

I am what I am: an individual, unique and
different, with a lineal history of an ancestral
promptings and urgings, a history of dreams, desires, and of
special experiences, of all of which I am the sum total.

My Autobiography (p. 271 Simon and Schuster 1964
edition)

Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a
jellyfish. ... The trouble is you won't fight. You've
given up. But there's something just as inevitable as
death. And that's life. Think of the power of the universe
— turning the Earth, growing the trees. That's the same power
within you — if you'll only have the courage and the will to use
it.

Calvero's answer to Terry's question: "What is there to fight
for?" in Limelight (1952)

You'll never find rainbows if you’re looking
down.

Swing High Little Girl (opening song sung by Charlie
Chaplin for The Circus.)

I hope we shall abolish war and settle all differences
at the conference table... I hope we shall abolish all
hydrogen and atom bombs before they abolish us first.

In response to journalist for his views on the future of
mankind at his 70th birthday, 1959-04-16

I am not a political man and I have no political convictions.
I am an individual and a believer in liberty. That
is all the politics I have. On the other hand I am not a
super-patriot. Super-patriotism leads to Hitlerism — and we've had
our lesson there. I don't want to create a revolution — I
just want to create a few more films.

In response to journalist for comments on United States
Attorney-General's announcement to revoke his re-entry visa, 1952-09-23, Cherbourg, England (quoted
from "Mr. Chaplin's Defense", Guardian)

By simple common sense I don't believe in God, in none.

As quoted in Manual of a Perfect Atheist (1989) by
Eduardo Del Rio Garcia

This is a story of a period between two World Wars — an interim in
which insanity cut loose. Liberty took a nose dive, and humanity
was kicked around somewhat.

Hynkel, the dictator, ruled the nation with an iron fist. Under the
new emblem of the double cross, liberty was banished, free speech
was suppressed and only the voice of Hynkel was heard.

I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help
everyone, if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want
to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by
each other's happiness — not by each other's misery.

Hannah, can you hear me?Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The
clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out
of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a
kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed
and brutality. Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given
wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the
rainbow...

In which Chaplin plays the dual roles of "Adenoid
Hynkel", the dictator of Tomania, and "A Jewish
Barber"

This is a story of a period between two World Wars — an
interim in which insanity cut loose. Liberty took a nose dive, and
humanity was kicked around somewhat.

Opening placard

Hynkel, the dictator, ruled the nation with an iron fist. Under
the new emblem of the double cross, liberty was banished, free
speech was suppressed and only the voice of Hynkel was heard.

Narrator

[Hynkel addressing the crowds, referring to his colleagues:
clearly modelled upon Göring and Goebbels]Hynkel: Herring shouldn smelten fine from
Garbitsch, und Garbitsch shouldn smelten fine from Herring. Herring
und Garbitsch... [He clasps his hands together] Translator: His excellency has just referred to
the struggles of his early days shared by his two loyal
comrades.

Schultz: You must speak.Jewish barber: I can't.Schultz: It's our only hope.

The
Barber's speech

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's
not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I
should like to help everyone, if possible, Jew, gentile, black man,
white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that.
We want to live by each other's happiness — not by each other's
misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another.In this world there is room for everyone. And the good
earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be
free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has
poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has
goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed
speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives
abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us
cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and
feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity.
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these
qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a
chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a
security.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The
very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men
(cries out for universal brotherhood) for the unity of us all. Even
now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world — millions
of despairing men, women and little children — victims of a system
that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who
can hear me, I say — do not despair. The misery that is now upon us
is but the passing of greed — the bitterness of men who fear the
way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators
die, and the power they took from the people will return to the
people.
Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes — men who despise you —
enslave you — who regiment your lives — tell you what to do — what
to think and what to feel! Who drill you — diet you — treat you
like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to
these unnatural men — machine men with machine minds and machine
hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are
men! You have the love of humanity in your heart. You don't
hate! Only the unloved hate — the unloved and the
unnatural!
Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th
Chapter of St. Luke it is written: "the Kingdom of God is within man" — not
one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people
have the power — the power to create machines. The power to create
happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free
and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all
unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give
men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age
security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to
power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never
will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people! Now,
let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the
world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed,
with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a
world where science and progress will lead to all men's
happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah.
The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming
out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world,
a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed
and brutality. Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given
wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the
rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious
future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up,
Hannah. Look up.

Misattributed

The inmates have taken over the asylum!

Reported by many sites to have been said by Chaplin upon
signing the papers to create the United Artists studio (1919), this
is believed to actually be derived from a remark about the same
event attributed to Richard Rowland, the head of
Metro Pictures: "The lunatics have taken charge of the
asylum"; variant derivations or reports of this statement also
include "The lunatics have taken over the asylum", and the
attribution to Rowland is reported to have occurred at least as
early as 1926, in the work A Million and One Nights by
Terry Ramsaye, and as recently as in Variety (2005-10-16).

In Charlie Chaplin: Comic Genius, David Robinson also
confirms that a disgruntled film distributor said "The lunatics are
taking over the asylum." (p. 57–58)

Quotes about Charlie
Chaplin

We felt that the public, and especially the children, like
animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to
Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we
thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the
wistfulness of Chaplin — a little fellow trying to do the best he
could.

Charlie Chaplin was a performer for nearly 70 years, starting at the age of five, and going until the age of 80. The character that Charlie Chaplin played most was called "the Tramp". The "Tramp" was a man of good manners, who wore a coat, a pair of big trousers, shoes, and a black hat.

Contents

Chaplin growing up

Charlie first started acting at age five. He acted in a music hall in 1894, standing in for his mother. When Charlie was a child, he was kept in bed for many weeks from a bad illness. At night, his mother would sit at the window and act out what was going on outside. His first important work came when he joined The Eight Lancashire Lads. In 1900, his brother Sydney helped him get the role of a comic cat in the pantomime Cinderella. In 1903 he was in a play called “Jim:A Romance of Cockayne”. Chaplin was in Casey's 'Court Circus' variety show. The next year, he became a clown in Fred Karno's 'Fun Factory' comedy company.

Awards

Chaplin won two special Oscars. Chaplin had first been chosen for both "Best Actor" and "Best Comedy Directing". But then, instead, he was given a special award "for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing". Chaplin's second special award came 44 years later, in 1972. When getting this award, Chaplin had the longest standing ovation (people standing up and clapping) in Academy Award history.[2]

Becoming a Knight

Charlie Chaplin's Death

Chaplin died on Christmas, 1977, in Switzerland. He died of a stroke, at the age of 88. On March 1, 1978, his body was stolen by a small group of Swiss people. They were trying to get money from Chaplin’s family. This plan didn’t work. The perpetrators were caught, and Charlie’s body was found 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva. He was buried under concrete to prevent further incidents.